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Massachusetts · Nonprofit

CAMBRIDGE PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION INC

CAMBRIDGE PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 41 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,579,519 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($637,916). 28 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 63% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.

$824k
Revenue FY2025
41
Funders on record
$1.6M
Grants received
$3.5M
Net assets
28/41 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 79%

Against its field

CAMBRIDGE PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION INC runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 15,926 education nonprofits its size.

Operating margin55% · top quartile
Months of reserve12.6mo · above the median
Revenue growth (annualized)22% · top quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 15,926 education nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025

Three funders worth looking at

Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.

See all 12 prospects and why each one surfaced →
01The organization over time

The organization over time

Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($168k) Expenses 100 ($241k) Net assets 100 ($697k)2018 Revenue 489 ($821k) Expenses 98 ($237k) Net assets 184 ($1.3M)2019 Revenue 224 ($376k) Expenses 132 ($317k) Net assets 206 ($1.4M)2020 Revenue 348 ($583k) Expenses 169 ($408k) Net assets 237 ($1.6M)2021 Revenue 367 ($615k) Expenses 152 ($366k) Net assets 296 ($2.1M)2022 Revenue 227 ($380k) Expenses 166 ($399k) Net assets 293 ($2.0M)2023 Revenue 426 ($714k) Expenses 166 ($399k) Net assets 338 ($2.4M)2024 Revenue 577 ($968k) Expenses 127 ($307k) Net assets 433 ($3.0M)2025 Revenue 492 ($824k) Expenses 154 ($372k) Net assets 503 ($3.5M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (492)Expenses (154)Net assets (503)Peer revenue range

How it's funded, over time

Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

76% of CAMBRIDGE PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (58% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 24,851 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$73k
17
$584k
18
$59k
19
$175k
20
$249k
21
$19k
22
$315k
23
$661k
24
$453k
25
13
months of
reserve
02Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 6 funders to 20 funders, grant income rose $23k → $269k.

8 of 41 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF)63% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.

From the IRS filings of CAMBRIDGE PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 41 funders by total. Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.

How concentrated its funding is

CAMBRIDGE PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 40% of grant income and the top three 67%; half comes from just 2 funders.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left

63% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund CAMBRIDGE PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION INC.

40%
largest funder
67%
top three
~5
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 90% · 2018 38% · 2019 65% · 2020 40% · 2021 39% · 2022 29% · 2023 37%diversifying over time.

“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.

How long its funders stay

65% of CAMBRIDGE PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 68% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.

Where its funders are

63% of CAMBRIDGE PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION INC's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $583k that is directly attributable, 62% of it comes from funders outside Massachusetts, across 10 states.

IL
NY
MA
OH
PA
NJ
CT
DE
AZ
NC

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

17
18
19
20
21
22
23
Massachusetts out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $997k arriving through sponsors registered in 7 statesis excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.

03Its place in the field

Funders to approach

Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first. Your 41 funders put you under-funded among the 400 organizations that share them.

From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.

Organizations like CAMBRIDGE PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION INC

Nonprofits whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over the universe of US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.

In Massachusetts

Nationally

04Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

46% of spending goes to programs.

Program 46%Management 30%Fundraising 24%

Governance

14
board members
100%
independent
Conflict-of-interest policyWhistleblower policyDocument retentionBoard reviewed the 990Audited financials

Public support

91%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

MA

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for CAMBRIDGE PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION INC: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf

Questions and answers

Who funds CAMBRIDGE PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION INC?
CAMBRIDGE PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION INC (Massachusetts) receives grants from 41 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,579,519 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($637,916). 28 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 63% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
How many funders does CAMBRIDGE PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION INC have?
IRS filings report 41 organizations giving $1,579,519 in grants to CAMBRIDGE PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION INC, 28 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of CAMBRIDGE PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION INC?
FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $637,916 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like CAMBRIDGE PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION INC find more funders?
Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Massachusetts. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 41funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing